At one time or more in everyone's life they have heard the phrase "Ignorance of the law is no excuse".
For most of us this seems to be reasonable enough. If you commit a crime you shouldn't be able to say you didn't know it was a crime and therefore should be let off with no punishment.
Now if you applied this phrase to a relatively simple document which everyone with a mild education can read, remember, and understand it makes perfect sense. Say for instance the United States Constitution (http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution.html) or if you're beliefs follow certain rules maybe the Ten Commandments (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Commandments) or maybe you grew up learning the Boy Scout Oath (http://www.usscouts.org/advance/boyscout/bsoath.asp) or Girl Scout Promise and Law (http://www.girlscouts.org/program/gs_central/promise_law/).
The first problem comes in when you have too many rules and regulations of which no one person can read or understand. The second problem comes when those rules and regulations are ambiguous or contradictory. The last problem occurs in finding which ones apply to your specific endeavor.
The United States Legislature and other government bodies have taken it upon themselves as measure of their success to continuously write and pass new lengthy and convoluted laws. From those laws regulation is constructed which in many instances may not be readily linked to the empowering law. In many cases the written regulations reference other regulations by code and section which may reference others making them completely unreadable by any lawyer, much less your average person.
Our governments have made ignorance of the law not only plausible but unavoidable. How can you legitimately enforce that which is humanly unobtainable and expect a positive outcome. Not only do those who come under the laws and regulations not stand a chance of compliance, but those who enforce them can't comprehend them either.
I advocate that the United States legislative bodies spend as much time removing and simplifying existing law as they spend creating it. Each new law and regulation is a direct restriction of someone's freedom and liberty for right or wrong reasons whether they know it or not.
